Although ANCOR staff and the Board of Directors have been hyper-focused on the future of the Medicaid entitlement over the last 7 months, the regular – and not so regular – business of the association has continued. The minutes from the May and July meetings may be accessed online here.

In addition to the regularly scheduled in person quarterly meetings of the board, President Angela King convened multiple special board teleconferences to guide and adequately resource ANCOR’s legislative advocacy throughout the Congressional ACA "repeal and replace" debate and proposed cuts to federal Medicaid funding. Notably, the board approved unbudgeted expenditures of approximately $50,000 to purchase paid media in the target states of Alaska, Colorado, Maine, Nevada and West Virginia.

The Board has met twice face to face since the last Across the Board column was published: first in May in conjunction with the ANCOR Annual Conference in San Antonio, and last month in Portland, Maine where they continued the relatively new tradition of hosting a meet and greet with local members.

Election Season The ANCOR Board conducted officer elections earlier this summer, re-electing the current slate of officers to their second and final one year term in those positions. Congratulations to Angela King, Robert Budd and Bob Baker, who will continue as President, Vice President and Treasurer, respectively.

Next up are the Board of Director and Leadership Development elections. Three members are running for three seats; electronic elections will be open from August 21-September 8. As a reminder, all full ANCOR members have one vote, exercised by the individual designated by your organization as the primary contact. If you are need to confirm who that individual is, please contact Jerri McCandless at jmccandless@ancor.org.

We hosted a Meet the Candidates call onAugust 17th so members could hear directly from the candidates about their vision for ANCOR's direction. A link to a recording of the call will be included with the voting ballot.

100% Membership Model Pilot Program – Welcome PAR and ADDP! In May, the board approved a three year pilot to test a new membership model to increase ANCOR’s impact. Although ANCOR is in very strong condition (healthy reserves, stable leadership, 10% membership growth each year over the past three years), the pilot is inspired by the highly successful experience of the National Council for Behavioral Health which dramatically increased their membership and advocacy strength through adoption of a similar model over a twelve year period. ANCOR’s three year invitational pilot will allow for a small number of state associations to become 100% Association members, an arrangement that allows all of the members of the state association to become full ANCOR members through their state association. As of August, two associations have signed on to the new program increasing ANCOR’s members by over 200 providers – the Massachusetts based Association of Developmental Disabilities Providers, and PAR – Pennsylvania Advocacy and Resources for Autism and Intellectual Disability. Please join me in a heartfelt thank you to the leadership of Shirley Walker and Gary Blumenthal in seeing the opportunity for their members to become our inaugural pilot members!

ANCOR Foundation Public Awareness Campaign Seeded As ANCOR gets ready to celebrate our 50th Anniversary in 2020, the ANCOR Foundation will shortly launch a three year campaign to celebrate and educate the broader public about how community living has and continues to transform people’s lives every day, and the critical role played by community providers. To assist the campaign with startup costs, at the May meeting of the ANCOR Board of Directors, the board authorized a contribution of $225,000 to the Foundation to assist with the retention of Mariana Nork, a professional fundraiser with the firm of Nork Apex, and Solomon McCown, a public relations firm. Much more is to come on this exciting new initiative!